Hafner's Flourist
t 5529 Harroun Road
7210 Airport Highway
Toledo, Ohio (419)885-7033
http://www.hafnerflorist.com/


I gotta say it again I love Hafner's ask for Beth
She's amazing to work with and the prices aren't unreasonable

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I second Hafner's. I met with Beth and left extremely excited. They're probably not the least expensive place you can find, but I've gotten excellent recommendations for them. Beth seemed like she really understood what I was going for also.

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I third Hafners. We're now planning from a distance, all the way from Atlanta, but we just moved from Toledo not too long ago. It had been 5 or 6 months since we had spoke with Kelly, and we were runing in to town right before Thanksgiving trying to take care of some details. Not only did she remember our names after having talked to us once, she remembered some fo the things we had talked about right off the bat, even though we hadn't booked her yet. They were able ot work with us really well on our budget as well... Callas are expensive! I don't know much about the other ones. We're using a few stargazer lillies ourselves as the main flower, and then accenting with white roses and smaller white flowers for myself and the girls.

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Northwest Christian Church
1590 West Temperance Rd.
Temperance, MI 48182
734-847-5200
http://northwestchristian.com


northwest is the church where jeff's parents attend. the church is very simple on the inside which i really liked. preacher bob is really nice and is very passionate about marriage. if you are not a member of a church in the area and want a church wedding, i highly recommend them.

The Sullivan Center at GESU
2049 Parkside Blcd.
Toledo OH 43607
419-531-2920
http://www.gesutoledo.org


we needed a venue that would let us bring our own caterer in and being able to supply your own alcohol was a major plus. two of our friends recommended that we check out the sullivan center. the moment we walked in, i knew it would be perfect. the price was right, the manager was easy going and the hall itself was extremely well maintained. plus, the kitchen is HUGE! however, there had been a change in the contract since our friends' used the hall. back then, you could have anyone cater your event. the board there recently changed that policy and now had a preferred caterers list. *sigh* looked like we would have to find another venue. when we told mary jo, the manager, about the whole caterer thing (a friend of ours was going to cater our reception but was just starting out with his business, ya da ya da ya da), she made an exception for us. sweet! we were able to decorate the hall and set up all the tables the friday before the big day which made saturday that less stressful. another nice thing about the hall is that they have a security officer patrol the parking lot without an extra charge.

Ellen Saffran,
Toledo Public Schools 419-536-7638

the tuesday before the wedding, i get a phone call from ellen. "we have a problem," she says. uh oh. almost all of the flower arrangements that we had planned were composed of one type of flower - light pink ranunculus. when the ranunculus arrived at customs, the agent opened the box and discovered that they were infested with bugs & that the majority of them had been eaten by these ecuadorian pests. ellen had made some calls to wholesales in the US and the only ranunculus should could get her hands on were peach in color - not going to work. so she suggested some other light pink flowers, i did a quick google image search of her suggestions and deciding on light pink roses and lisianthus for the BMs' bouquets and all the corsages & boutenierres. before we finished our conversation, she told me she wasnot going to charge me a dime for the flowers since they are not at all what was originally planned & she didn't feel right about taking my money. she mailed my check back the next day.

that brings us to saturday, the big day. it's 2:00 and the photographer arrives but no sign of Ellen. 2:15 rolls around, then 2:30. No sign of the flowers. This is the first time during the entire wedding planning process that I am angry. Of course, I didn't bring her cell number. I'm calling information, trying to get her house number (like that was going to work) and my uncle and cousin are just about to head out the door to run to kroger to pick up some flowers when Ellen arrives. I immediately felt like sh!t for being angry with her. You see, Northwest Christian Church had moved to it's current location earlier this past year. The church used to meet at a location on Sterns. Ellen had gone to the church's previous location where another wedding was taking place. Confusing? Very much indeed. The pastor at that church figured out that Ellen was at the wrong church, called our pastor to let someone know that the flowers were on their way and gave Ellen directions to our church. She got their at 2:45, was super apologetic and the flower were absolutely beautiful.

i guess she could have called me to let me know what was going on or mapquested directions to the church but then i again, i could have done the exact same thing (i had printed a map and directions for the baker). in the end, her customer service went above and beyond and the finished product was everything i could have hoped for.

The Beauty Bar
2919 W Central Ave Toledo, OH 43606 (419) 537-5400
http://www.beauty-bar.com/

where do i begin? scheduling nail, hair & makeup appointments for my wedding was a breeze. my BMs & FGs hair looked amazing & the makeup staff did a wonderful job. i highly recommend tonya for your bridal updo and you must have andrea do you makeup if you decide to have your makeup professionaly done.

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Beauty Bar is awesome... they do a really nice job. Just a little expensive

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The Beauty Bar did the makeup for my engagement photos. I am NOT using them for the actualy wedding day. You can see PIB of my makeup but I felt it was too "not me" and didn't want that for the wedding day. Even though I asked them to go fairly natural I felt the makeup looked very "done". And I second that they are very expensive.

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Its a very nice place, my sister goes there and I had my hair cut there once, its just a little too pricey for me.

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I definately recommend the Beauty Bar, that's where I go to get my hair done, and my best friend and bridesmaid works there. Everyone is really nice and they do a really good job in my opinion!

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Those of you who suggested Beauty Bar for my hair= GENIUS!! =OD I had my appointment today, I worked with Amanda, and she did my roots. She matched my color from my last highlight, covered the streaky stuff that I hated, and she totally listened to me and to what I wanted (it seemed no one ever did!) Plus you couldn't beat the price and that place is so nice!

So thanks!! I swear I'm never going anywhere to get my hair done as long as I'm in this area!! =OD

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Brieschke's Bakery
5639 N Main St, Sylvania, OH 43560 · 419-882-2302

we were not planning on having a cake at all until four months before the wedding. jeff's mom kept suggesting brieschke's (she couldn't grasp NOT having wedding cake). visiting brieschke's was one of the best decisions we made. we ended up having a small two tier cake and fifteen dozen cupcakes - $190. the cake was marble and we went with raspberry, chocolate, marble & white for the cupcakes. the presentation was so beautiful and that cake was damn good. i ordered some chinese takeout boxes for the left over cupcakes to send home with guests. this worked out really well. plus, i was able to grab two cupcakes for us for the drive up to detroit.

Davis Creative Services
Tecumseh, MI
734-649-7839
http://www.daviscreativeservices.com/


B+ – It took forever to get our video back, but that wasn’t Dave’s fault at all. He had outsourced our editing to someone else because he was in a fairly serious car accident, and sent it to us before he watched the whole thing. As soon as he watched it, he told us it wasn’t up to par, and he would re-edit it. He was right. The first video absolutely sucked. We got the new one back over 2 months after the wedding, and it is sooooo much better. I really like the new video – the quality and editing are great – but there’s no footage of the bouquet toss (which was on the crap video, so I know he has it), and it isn’t set up quite like we had discussed him doing it. Also, he told us he would send us a CD with pictures he took at our rehearsal, but we haven’t seen that yet. Dave and his partner were everywhere on the day of the wedding and were a bit obtrusive at times, but managed to capture everything really well.

The Class Act
P.O. Box 13173
Toledo, Ohio 43613
419.472.4465
http://www.classactbybobnorris.com/

I am using the Class Act. They're very flexible when it comes to what to play and will take any/all of your suggestions. They too said that they'll get anything they don't have.

They also have 4 (I think?) djs and never use outside people if they can't fill the slot, they want the best quality only.

My friends' have used them for their weddings and they were great - wonderful at keeping things flowing smoothly, tending to the bridal party and at keeping people dancing!!

There's a coupon on the website for $100 off too!

Good luck!!

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We had Craig and he was very nice and professional. Always letting me know what was about to happen so I could around up the hubbie! I reccommend Craig!!

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We LOVED Craig from Class Act. I've seen a couple of their other DJs as well and all have been professional and a lot of fun too. :) I highly recommend the company.

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